John Goff, Salem Preservationist

In today's Salem Gazette, John Goff writes about "Some old Salem ties to Nantucket" and references the Thomas Gardner Society's website. In the article, John alludes to the peaceful nature attained on Nantucket as opposed to the more cantankerous mode (my usage) in parts of New England.

Earlier, John wrote about King Philip and about the turmoils related to his time. John and his co-author ask what-ifs about more peaceful approaches, albeit that the die seemed to have be cast earlier. Many left the old country to get away from violence (Laud's love of nose splitting and ear cutting off, as an example). Too, it was in the King Phillip's war that the Gardner family lost a son, Joseph, however Thomas and Margaret were already passed on.

Aside: Governor Simon Bradstreet married Joseph's widow, Ann, who had Gov. Simon sign a pre-nup that she drew up. The house is remembered by his name, though.

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John Goff is one of the many modern descendants of Thomas. He will be the first in a series that we will start on descendants. We first ran across John's work (Salem preservation and newspaper columnist) on an early web search for Gardner which turned up the article on Gardner/White (the post was from 2011).

John's ancestor is Richard who was the third son (Dr. Frank's book) of Thomas and Margaret. Then, John's lineage continues with Richard's son, John, who married Mary Starbucks and, then, Elizabeth who married Stephen Gorham.

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One planned activity will be to go through John's articles at the Gazette and create an index as part of our bibliography. For instance, this little bit on the Pioneer Village was a great read. It got me to look at Nathaniel's (a Thomas descendant) book, Grandfather's Chair (courtesy, archive.org). The Pioneer Village has a replica of the Great House (Cape Ann) that was taken over to Salem on orders of John Endicott (Winthrop dined there).

Also, John has written of the Salem historians: Joseph B. Felt, Harlan Horton Smith (worked on the Pioneer Village), and more.

This is the Google search result for "John Goff " at the Gazette site. The theme, for the most part, is Salem and early New England. Hence, these articles are of interest to the TGS.

Remarks:

08/27/2022 -- Updated link to John's article. Probably need to check the other links, as well. Finally, added John to the Descendants of Richard. Just for the record, search results on John Goff  (23 posts) in this blog. 

01/07/2019 (updated, 02/08/2019) -- The Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. would like to thank John Goff for his support over the years. We have pulled together a list of his contributions (Gems of Salem).

11/24/2014 -- John featured at anceSTORY archives: Tidal Mills defined by John Goff.

01/25/2013 -- We need to design a framework for doing descendant bios.

Modified: 08/27/2022

Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 4

One goal of the Thomas Gardner Society will be to collect, and hopefully organize, material that references, even if indirectly, the lives and time of Thomas and Margaret and to construct a coherent view for future generations. However sketchy this material might be in the beginning, future research can help flesh out the story. The works of Dr. Frank A. Gardner, and prior work, by others, establish the basis. Gardner's Beacon, and its corresponding blog, has tasks related to supporting this theme. Another approach would be support for scholarly papers.

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We have our first guest article written by John Goff who is an architect and who has been very active in preservation efforts across New England, principally Salem. He is a Thomas descendant. John provides technical commentary on the Gardner-Pingree house (see earlier post) whose construction represents the amount of wealth that had been attained by the Gardners.

Image from Conant book

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As we look back, there can be obvious differences of opinion about what information means, especially, if it's scanty. Scholarship would suggest to look at all sides of the issue. There are several examples.

The house built on Cape Ann, called the Governor's Faire House (GFH) by Rev.Higginson, is a good example. Earlier (Thomas' (note comparison to a house in the Pilgrim area) or Margaret's house), we used an image provided in the 1887 book by the Conant family (pg 104). The house had been moved by Endicott from Cape Ann to Salem. That means that many would have seen it and could describe what they saw to an artist.

Photo by John Goff
Salem Preservation, Inc. 

In 1930, Dow, et al, built the Salem Pioneer Village so that people could see how things were 300 years before. We have the 400th look back coming up. The image on the right (photo by John Goff, Salem Preservation, Inc.) shows how Dow conceived the building. It does not match up with what the Conant book said. Of course, any information about dimensions may have been hard to find. Yet, one could imagine that the ship(s) may have carried material for a house, as depicted by Conant. There would not have been enough time, even with tools, for even the house of Dow to be built, given the small size of the crew plus the fact that they had to get themselves settled, fed, and a whole lot of other important things.

What did Dow go on to make his re-creation? John Goff mentions that the GFH towers over the other houses which are mostly either diminutive English timber frame cottages or English wigwams built with bent-sapling frames.

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See Vol. II, No. 4 of Gardner's Beacon which considers some of the houses that have been associated with the Gardner family over the years.This issue on houses was interesting; our coverage of the topic ought not be thought of as complete, by any means.

References: Conant -- History and genealogy ..., Dow - Every Day Life ..., Fischer - Albion's Seed ..., Stone & Fickett - Every Day Life ...

Remarks:

03/09/2019 -- Added in image to build an index at our portal to truth.

01/25/2013 -- By the way, we're going to document this more thoroughly on Wikipedia - Great House (Cape Ann). We have John Goff's expertise available to assist us. This house was the first of its kind in New England.

10/27/2012 -- See Great House (Cape Ann) on Wikipedia. As Higginson said, it was two-storied with a high-pitched roof. The image from Conant's book, and from the letter by C.M. Endicott, shows three-stories. The house underwent major alterations in 1792 which was before the sketches were done. Unfortunately, no sketch exists from earlier times.

10/24/2012 -- John Goff (Salem's Witch House ..., pg 24) writes: After his arrival downtown in 1628, Endicott ruled that the old Thomas Gardner "Governor's House" from Cape Ann (built about 1623) be dismantled, moved by sea from Cape Ann to Naumkeag and be re-erected in earliest Salem to serve as a new Governor's House here. It stood north of the old shawmut on what is now Washington Street.

09/12/2012 -- It was said that we're not done with houses. Fischer notes, in Albion's Seed, that the lean-to was found in Kent, England in the 17th century, though not many have survived. Despite its usefulness in New England, evidently the 'seed' for this type of house came over with those whose background was from the Kent area.

09/11/2012 -- The Stone & Fickett book has the younger student in mind and provides classroom exercise. Ought something similar be done for later students?

Modified: 03/09/2019

Gems of Salem

Gardner Research started in 2010 from a blank slate, more or less, using the wonders of the www; in other words, trolling the waters of the internet to see what we could find. The result? Lots of stuff, some of which we have organized. And, there is a lot more work to do.

As we have seen, records get digitized and come online. Sherborne, Dorset is an example as their records allowed us access to lots more about Margaret and Thomas. See the discussions on WikiTree. Notice two things: this is a profile of Thomas sponsored by a Great Migration Project using Anderson's book (1986); Margaret is given as Thomas' spouse and mother of the children. As well are records coming on-line, people write.

A very good example, that is relevant, is salem.wickedlocal.com. Early on, we saw an article by John Goff: Looking at Salem’s beginnings: The White and Gardner family contributions. This article published in 29 Dec 2007. That was eleven years ago; we saw it four years later and noticed that it mentioned Rev. John White.

One of our first activities was to start the Thomas Gardner (planter) page on Wikipedia and have added several other pages or links. A good example might be when there were news stories about Amelia Earhart's plane. Gardner Island was mentioned; so, we had to look at that (as we have with other areas: Gardner Junction, Gardner, CO, Gardiner, OR). And, John got into that story, too.

I well remember John's first email. He congratulated us as he had run across our Wikipedia tagging (put link to Thomas Gardner's page in that of Gideon Gardner). I do not know if he wrote about Gardner Island, but we did discuss Gardner's Beacon. And, John was kind enough to contribute articles as well as provide other information to support our research (thank you, John). I thought that it might be a good task to itemize John's work, especially as it relates to Gardner studies. See the list below which is provided as a reminder to us to look further into the articles. On the list, too, are Salem articles that mention Gardner.

First, though, here are a couple of examples of overlap interest. On our Gardner Gate page (portal to truth), we just did a summary of some pre-arrival information (1 March 2013 - the 2nd most read post) pulling information from a series of Gardner's Beacon issues. Then, I just found this article by John -- Salem’s forgotten French heritage (7 June 2008) -- in which he details French activities in the area that became Salem. He mentions the discussions with the American Indian. There are several articles that we will look at further.

But, another example, is the work that we did to track down information about the owner of the barque, Bostonian, that wrecked (Oct 1850) at what became Gardiner, OR (update - 30 October 2018). The original work was done in 2014 with an article published in The Essex Genealogist. The owner was a descendant of George of Rhode Island, though, two of his wives were descendants of Thomas Gardner of Salem. But, as well as the family information, there is a whole lot to discuss about the time (More on the Gold Rush 31 Mar 2016).

Here, I see that John wrote about a response to a query (1990s) from San Francisco (NAUMKEAG NUGGETS: Salem in the California Gold Rush 5 Jun 2015) about a ship that they discovered. It had been built in Salem.

From what I have seen, hundreds of ships were abandoned as crews rushed off to pan gold. That makes the Bostonian different in that not only did it bring supplies from Boston to San Francisco (July 1849 to January 1850 voyage - only four passengers - it was loaded), it went then to New Zealand (that was interesting, verifying that part of its journey), returned to San Francisco, and wrecked in Oregon is October of 1850.

Many went to California by land. We have researched that avenue, as well, due to our interest in the western expansion. Too, New England (and Salem) had the reach of a long arm. A third way to the gold fields was boating down to Central America, trudging across, then boating back up to what is now known as the Left Coast. This went both ways (many lost their fortune in that journey).

There are other examples in an endless set of things to research. So, gems, indeed. Finally, to a partial list of John's Gardner touch. Each item is marked by date; there is no obvious order, yet.

• 2011/08/white-and-gardner-family-contributions.html 
• 2016/09/gardner-wayman-peabody-mill.html 
• 2013/01/john-goff.html 
• 2012/09/gardners-beacon-vol-ii-no-4.html
• 2012/10/gardners-beacon-vol-ii-no-5.html
• 2011/08/thomas-house.html
• 2018/12/wikipedia-rev-john-white-et-al.html
• 2012/08/king-philip-joseph-and-ann.html
• 2015/03/things-nordic.html
• 23 Jun 2007 Appreciating Salem’s historic Bridge Street
• 25 Jan 2013 Some old Salem ties to Nantucket
• 28 Apr 2016 Federalist Style works on land or sea
• 2 Sep 2016 When Forest River Tide Mill made corn meal
• --- below are from hits using search ---
• Bibliography (John's book)
• Timeline (John's work mentioned) 
• The old manual index (John's in Vols II, III, and IV)
• Vol. II, No. 6 (evolution of the house after Cape Ann) 
• Great House, Cape Ann (John pointed me to the material to do this page)
• ...

Remarks: Modified: 08/27/2022

02/08/2019 -- Recently, we got registered with Google as non-profit and have put a search facility on the sites. They are (will be) ad-free, once I get the administrative stuff completed. On the search page, I mention our manual effort at indexing. Now, we can get more serious. I extended the above list with some hits from searching on John Goff.

02/08/2019 -- Put photo of John Goff from 5 Jun 2015 article, Naumkeag Nuggets.

09/03/2019 -- Like the way John writes (see image). He mentions Sidney which is good. Dr. Frank and his sister, Lucie, picked up Sidney's work after he stopped his Essex wanderings and writings. This is an example of John's view (seen after I had, more or less, determined the same thing).

It was in this house where Thomas and Margaret enjoyed Cape Ann's wonderful life (posts search on Cape Ann).

04/20/2021 -- John mentioned in a Melissa Berry article (with reference to Richard Davenport). On New France and New Spain. We see it more out west.  ... Added link to page of Gideon Gardner, who was namesake of Gardner Island (by either Joshua Gardner or Joshua Coffin). 

08/27/2022 -- Finally, added John to the Descendants of Richard. Just for the record, search results on John Goff  (23 posts) in this blog. 

White and Gardner family contributions

The motivation for this post comes mostly from a nice article written by John Goff, a descendant of Thomas. John heads Salem Preservation, Inc. Fortunately, there has been this type of effort as, at one time, Salem was disappearing due to progress and re-building.

When I first read this article a few months ago, I thought that we need to put December 29 on the calendar. That was the day of Thomas' death in 1674 in Salem. So, let's not forget to get something on Salem's Twitter roll, or even their Facebook page, on that date.

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We earlier looked at where Thomas is now.

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John Goff talks about the family of John White who was one of the supporters behind the efforts of the Dorchester Company. Many do not think about White when they consider the development of New England and the U.S.A. Too, Thomas is more than under the radar. John's article helps us to overcome that deficiency.

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Roger Conant got his statue, finally, the last century. He had been known as the 'forgotten' founder (with Endicott, of course, taking the limelight).

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John Goff, then, mentions a little about the Gardner contribution, which is large. I like to point to the descendants list, as an example. Expect that this list will grow as research continues.

For instance, John mentions a few families who are not on the list, yet, such as Gedney, Parkman, Greenough, and, of course, Goff. We'll be looking into that.

Remarks:

08/06/2016 -- More on All things Gardners.

09/05/2013 -- Nice site with information related to Rev. John White.

06/15/2013 -- John Farmer wrote that Thomas was from Scotland. Origins are, and will be, a focus.

10/27/2012 -- John Goff looks at the Corwin House in his book which mentions Rev. John White.

05/01/2012 -- We ought to remember Hawthorne every year, on this day.

08/21/2011 -- Added in some comments about the house built on Cape Ann and about the party's description by White (in his Planters' Plea). Seems to me, from this write up (the badly led and ill-disciplined landsmen left at Cape Ann), that Rev John threw Thomas into a group that included those at Morton's shindig at Wollaston.

Modified: 08/06/2016

Gardner and Conant families

As we know, Roger came into the Cape Ann area at the request of Rev. John White (more below). We had an earlier post that considered some differences between Roger and Thomas. Too, the last Beacon issue looked in a Annals format (we're going to use this for awhile) at several things, one of which was John's (as in, Endicott's) relationship with Thomas (as in, John knew that Thomas was a "Mr" and related to him thusly). Thomas and Margaret were resident in the house when John had it knocked down and brought over to Salem.

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Aside: By the way, we're going to document this more thoroughly on Wikipedia - Great House (Cape Ann). We have John Goff's expertise available to assist us. This house was the first of its kind in New England.

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Uncle?

Now, there are relationships between the families of Thomas and Roger. Seeth married Roger's son, Joshua. No doubt, there are others. Let's look at one that is interesting. Take Rev. John White (please). His sister, Martha, married William Cooke. Then, their daughter, Elizabeth, married William Walton. Elizabeth and William and their kids came over to New England. And, their daughter, Elizabeth, married Lot Conant.

This would mean, given the association mentioned by John Goff (in his article), that the Elizabeth who married Lot was a grand-niece of Thomas. However, according to a UK page, dealing with the Dorchester Company, the sister, Elizabeth, of Rev. John White who married Thomas Gardner did not have a son named Thomas.

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Aside: From an outsider's view, Rev. John White didn't act like much of an uncle, or did he? If he were, he sure sold his nephew done the river, IMHO. (See Remarks 06/15.2013)

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As you can see by the links, we are, mostly, in an acquisition'l mode. The intent is to find out all of the sides and their supporting material. The hope would be to find some reasonable story that has good support. Now, when it is a case that is not so strong, we can make proper conjectures. To wit? About the number of wives of Thomas: we say two.

The beauty of newer methods (disparate view bridging in the cloud) will be to allow multi-faceted looks at something. We don't live in a black/white world. Yet, even fuzzy approaches can (must) de-fuzzify now and then. How to present the material with the proper richness will be a continuing challenge.

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Aside: There are many such questions to work on.

Remarks:

02/06/2019 -- Last night, the 'Roots' show (PBS, Gates) reported on Mike Stahan, a TV personality. Mary Gye came up with descendants of a mix of Essex County families. Her granddaughter married Samuel Walton whose father was a nephew of the good Rev. Samuel's sister married the son, Lot, of Roger Conant. Lots to look at regarding this particular tree (southern moves, etc.). For now, a brief mention with a graphic.

09/05/2013 -- Nice site with information related to Rev. John White.

08/22/2013 -- The start of a look at what was what in early Salem (and New England) as far as Gardners is concerned.

06/15/2013 -- Was there a Thomas and a Thomas? -- About a funny uncle, I'll admit an err. Based upon what I've seen in researching for the next Beacon issue (and even from personal observation), uncles are not saints, many times.

01/25/2013 -- John Goff is noted for his Salem preservation efforts.

Modified: 02/06/2019

Gardner-Wyman-Peabody Mill

The Gardner family built several mills. An early one, on South River in Salem, was built by Samuel and John, sons of Thomas and Margaret. The permission for the mill was granted in 1663 (pg 85, 1907 book of Dr. Frank).

About 1743,  the Gardner mill was still in operation. One of the owners was John Gardner (#90, 1907 book) who was a descendant of George, also son of Thomas. At that time, John erected a tide mill at Forest River. John's son sold the mill.

Millstone
Forest River
Salem, MA
Tide Mill Times

There were a couple of interim owners; the mill was later purchased by an in-law, Francis Peabody. John Goff, Salem Preservationist and author, recently wrote an article (Salem Gazette) about a millstone (photo) found in the Forest River area this summer. John, who is a Thomas and Margaret descendant and who has contributed to Gardner's Beacon, sent us photos.

There were several tide mills in Salem (John Goff, Tide Mill tours in and around Salem). The Tide Mill Times published the photo by John of the millstone in their "2016 Summer" issue. In that same issue, there is an article about specifics of tide mill design and operation.

The first part of John's article appeared recently: When Forest River Tide Mill made corn meal (Part 1 of 2). Part 2 of John's article will cover modernization of the mill that converted it to paint production.

Here is a summary of the family ties related to the mill:

John, son of John Gardner who was the mill's builder, married Elizabeth Pickering, sister of the noted Colonel Timothy. Their son, Samuel Pickering Gardner, went off to that wider world of Boston as did Winthrop, much earlier. Samuel married Rebecca Russell Lowell, daughter of the Judge. Samuel's and Rebecca's son, John Lowell Gardner I, married Catherine Peabody who was the sister of Francis Peabody who bought, and modernized, the mill. Finally, the son, John Lowell Gardner II, of John and Catherine married Isabella Stewart whose name adorns the Boston museum.

In the article, John notes that Ingalls and Wyman owned the mill between the Gardner and Peabody. In his 1933 book, Dr. Frank mentions that John Gardner had sold the mill in 1786 to Captain Samuel Tucker.

Remarks: Modified: 09/10/2016

09/10/2016 --

Rev. John White, further

As the time frame of the 400th look backs makes its way forward, there will be a lot of things to do in preparation for celebration. Too, though, there will be a lot to learn.

We could start by pulling together our view of the Dorchester company under whose auspices Thomas and Margaret made their transition to the New World. And, getting a proper focus of the company would require us to know a whole lot more about Rev. John White.

We have mentioned the Reverend in several posts, so far. These had him as a focus.

• White and Gardner family contributions (2011) -- John Goff uses the day of Thomas' passing (Dec. 29th) to write about the relationship between the families. This relationship was not brought out in the Great Migration series' look at Thomas. Too, one Dorchester writeup does not show Elizabeth White having a son named Thomas. Several questions will be proposed related to these early years, and we'll pay special attention to noting what is known (Example: How many wives?).   
• Gardner and Conant families (2013) --  We know that other relatives of Rev John came over. This post deals with one of those families (we will be listing others). Given the two families in focus in the post, we can see that a lot more is known about the pre-move life of Roger; how can we fill in information about Thomas?  
• 400th, again (2013) -- One of the churches that the Rev was associated with has a nice website with interesting details. See below for more on that.     

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As we saw with 400th post, information is starting to appear about the company and Rev. John White. Today, I noticed that they have the Rev as a great-grandfather of John Wesley who founded Methodism.

There is a biographical sketch of Susanna Wesley, John's mother, in a compilation of her writings that was published, by Oxford, in 1997.  Her mother is noted as Mary (?) White (d. 1693).

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The next Gardner's Beacon issue will start a closer look at the company started by Rev John.

Remarks:  Modified: 07/14/2018

10/30/2013 -- Note the addition of the Viewpoints category. These may split by topic, but there are all sorts of things to research and to document. Viewpoints? Yes, consider it like the multiple basic views of our underlying reality (yes, interpretations abound). Look, for any situation, we can befuddle things (fuzzify, if you would). Some things are more set (say the Royal births that were witnessed so that there would be no switching of infants -- thanks Dr. Lucy Worsley - see Tales from the Royal bedchambers) than are others. But, even as paternity issues can show, it doesn't take much to muddy the waters. So, genealogy is a matter of providing strong arguments backed up by, hopefully, inviolable bits of history (all inclusive, including administratively handled pieces). 

09/26/2014 -- Rev. John White, the Patriarch of Dorchester.

07/14/2018 -- Need to update pointers to the Dorchestor work (et al). It moved from ancestry. http://www.opcdorset.org/fordingtondorset/Files/DorchesterRevJohnWhite1575-1648.html Notice, in looking at his sister, Elizabeth, there is no son Thomas Gardner. Dorset County page on Rev. John White.

Thomas' house

Firstly, we have no photo of the house. The attached drawing has appeared in several publications. We'll run down its source.

The house was put together by material brought over by the Cape Ann party. With such a small crew, there would have been room for a lot of material on the boat.

We might say that this is the house that Thomas built. Evidently, the building job was completed in 1624. Possibly, that would have allowed some shelter for their first winter. Who lived in the house?

One researcher suggested that the overseers used the house. Tilly didn't have a family. Did other families share the warmer space over that first winter?

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We need to pull together all of the stories that have been told over the years.

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Of course, we can say this is the house that Roger Conant took over with his coming into leadership at Cape Ann, in 1625, after his sojourn in Plymouth and Nantasket.

Too, we can say that this is the house that John Endicott had taken over to Salem for his use. See Higginson's description of Salem including the 'fair house' for the governor.

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Obviously, it was the first 3-story house in New England, perhaps even in the eastern U.S. Before saying that, we would have to look at what the Spanish did in Florida. Jamestown put more into their fort than the houses.

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Of course, what did the other houses that use locally fabricated material look like? And, to what did Thomas and Margaret move when Conant 'confiscated' the house?

We can surmise the construction style by comparing the Thomas house with the one (shown below) of George Soule (a re-creation) which illustrates both the material and the construction technique.

A little later, there would have been houses like we see with Balch (Beverly) and Whipple (Ipswich).

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By 1626, the crew was on the move to what became Salem. Did they leave anyone behind in Cape Ann?

The house was not moved until later; was it occupied during that time? We know its location in Salem after the move. What eventually became of the house?

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Finally, let's look at some of the economic realities, that will be addressed more fully, here and elsewhere, until we get the real story out there about Thomas and his kind (the real contributors).

• The crew came into the area in the spring. Given that planting requires preparation, was there really enough time to do anything (even if there were good ground) that first year beyond sustenance? Hint: did not the group sustain itself? We did not hear of food problems of a major sort until the mass influx later that overwhelmed the supply.

• The house took some of the effort from the crew. Even if all of the material was there, construction takes time, energy, and knowledge. Did this diversion impact fishing efforts, to boot? Again, the sustenance issue comes to fore.

• I have said elsewhere that 'capital' was asking for its profit before giving enough time to the planters. Given what we know now about start up costs, were they not underestimated for this effort (or was the presence of the Church mindset necessarily associated with over-optimistic views -- of course, selling one's nephew down the river seemed to fit well that Church-obsessed mind)? One can also imagine all of the logistical nightmares? Just because this group was better prepared than their neighbors to the south did not lessen the difficulties that those who came over faced.

• Asking for unreasonable profits still exists today (why else the impetus behind globalization -- and leaning, that is, push costs to your suppliers while not listening to their pangs as you squeeze out their blood); at this time, it would have been worse due to the nature of that aristocratic bent that had God's approval (Church, again, supposedly).

• Of course, we know that Roger was no more capable than Thomas. How did those two relate (their offspring married, we'll get into that)? It is interesting that Roger, and his Old Planters, went off to what is now Beverly. Thomas and Margaret were still very much part of Salem (we'll put out, soon, a post on their 1641 location).

• As said before, Thomas' offspring are strong evidence for him and Margaret. We'll detail each more fully. Too, he was referenced as 'Mr' and performed a whole lot of civic duty. Some have gone on about Roger's grace as he yielded to John (the Endicott, of course) for the greater good. Thomas, too, was graceful, in many more ways (we'll have to tell this tale -- essentially stayed well enough under the radar for all of his offspring to become effective adults).

That these economics considerations are pertinent in today's world seems to increase their potential interest.

Remarks:

03/19/2022 -- Nice to see research on the family of John Tilly. NEHGR, Winter, 2022 has an article on John and his family by Clifford L. Stott. The title is "Rev. William Tilley of Broadwindsor, Dorset, and His Sons in New England: John, Nathaniel, and William." Identifies his child and more. 

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.  

01/25/2013 -- By the way, we're going to document this more thoroughly on Wikipedia - Great House (Cape Ann). We have John Goff's expertise available to assist us. This house was the first of its kind in New England.

11/27/2012 -- Let's itemize what we know, re-iterate some basics, and the proceed constructively.

10/28/2012 -- September issue had a theme of houses.

10/24/2012 -- John Goff (Salem's Witch House ..., pg 24) writes: After his arrival downtown in 1628, Endicott ruled that the old Thomas Gardner "Governor's House" from Cape Ann (built about 1623) be dismantled, moved by sea from Cape Ann to Naumkeag and be re-erected in earliest Salem to serve as a new Governor's House here. It stood north of the old shawmut on what is now Washington Street.

09/13/2012 -- About Margaret. We'll honor her as the ancestor, with Thomas, of the Gardner family.

05/01/2012 -- There will be a 'house' category, soon. Too, house is mentioned in the Maypole post.

12/17/2011 -- Tim Lambert's A World History Encyclopedia will be used much in this blog and in related material. Here is his description of colonial homes. By the way, we'll look at this, too. In Connecticut, where the cast offs (kidding) from Winthrop's world went, in part, they started to build big houses early. As in, the prototype for the American Mansion (and the McMansions) was worked right there south of Massachusetts. What was different? Multiple fireplaces, many rooms, large square feet, multiple cooking areas, servant quarters, and so forth.

12/02/2011 -- According to Felt, in the Annals of Salem, Endicott purchased, when he arrive, the house and have it moved from Cape Ann. Felt writes "It was then two stories high. Some of the remains of it are said to be still contained in the Old Tavern, at the corner of Court and Church Streets." Felt also mentions the reference to the house made by Higginson ("we found a faire house newly built for the Governor") when he arrived in Salem.

10/13/2011 -- Er, Margaret's house.

08/21/2011 -- Going through White's Plea may take some time. See Remarks 08/21/2o11.

08/16/2011 -- We will be using the Planters' Plea (from White) to get some better sense of what happened in that early period. Only Endicott is mentioned by name.

Modified: 03/19/2022

Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 5

Salem's reputation is always of interest, but it is even more so at this time of the year. We stop to take a look at the events related to witch trials, from the perspective of those who were there and whose descendants, in these current times, are spread far and wide.

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In the issue, we look at how some descendants have worked to establish Memorials in the area. For instance, the TerCentenary Memorial, put into place in 1997, was re-opened in September of this year after being closed from some refurbishment. The dedication ceremony was attended by members of The Associated Daughters of Early American Witches (ADEAW). The group was founded in 1987 for those women who directly descend from someone who was accused during that time. Those accused were both women and men.

---

John Goff writes about his preservation efforts for the Pioneer Village in Salem which was built for the 300th anniversary of the founding. See Vol. II, No 4 for a look at Dow's work. George Francis Dow included a replica of the Great House (Cape Ann) that was moved to Salem by Endicott in the village (Pioneer Village) put together for the 300th anniversary of Salem around 1930.

John also did preservation work in the area of the Corwin House (2009, google.com, amazon.com) which is of interest to the theme of this issue. This house is one of the few remaining artifacts that can be associated with the period. In his book, John describes nicely the area of Naumkeag (later Salem), before the advent of the English planters in order to establish the fact of long time occupation. In fact, the area was frequently used by the American Indians for catching and handling seafood. John's book looks at the families who were involved with the house or who lived in the immediate area.

We will look further at what we can learn from John's book. He makes a brief mention of Rev. John White. As well, John wants us to better understand the American Indian frameworks (see King Philip, for example) in order to improve our appreciation.

---

The current issue also takes a look at the fact that current descendants may have a mixture of lines, basically being an offspring from those who were in most of the roles that were played out during the unfolding of the mania. That, of course, includes those who were critical from the beginning and who were of sufficient authority to speak out (unfortunately, the Court did not listen), as well as those who were accused and, even, those with official duties. So, we ought to consider the types of roles played and what they might mean. Many of those who were jurors later apologized, deeply. And, there was official cleansing of those accused, albeit for some not until the 20th century. Finally, we always must remember those executed and the meaning of their lives.

---

See Vol. II, No. 5 of Gardner's Beacon for these considerations of the events of 1692, at Salem and its surrounds.

References: See References, Vol. I., No. 4, Goff ... Salem's Witch House: A Touchstone to Antiquity ... , Linder ... Salem Witchcraft Trials, 1692 ...,   

Remarks:

09/19/2018 -- Pulling together the posts related to the witch trials for future discussion. 

10/30/2013 -- I am in the process of reading Katherine Howe's book, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. Dane, as in being related to Francis, of course. I wondered if there would be motivating material for a Beacon issue (we did have 1692 as a theme in 2011 and 2012 - we'll do a post on this subject sometime other that the Halloween period). It is an interesting plot, especially the balancing of the characters, and their interactions, in two time periods is nice. The description that Katherine provides of little Dorcas Good in the underground cell surely depicts the poor, young thing's misery and shows Katherine's grasping of the horror. One wonders, from some of the modern views and comments, if people really understand the dire situation. Too, the main hypothesis might have some truth, in a slightly altered construction. You see, science has not shown as much light on human matters as some might think. But, then, for any knowledge that we have gained, we have also seen that the unknowns do not diminish. It's just that we get better able to cover (as in, remove from awareness) the holes in which lurk the demons.

09/03/2013 -- Boosted up the font on the image caption after reading of Rev. Francis Dane's extended family and their ordeals.

02/10/2013 -- Fan-in from the turmoil of all types of ancestors.

01/26/2013 -- Updated this post to add reference to Sarah Solart Poole Good and her four-year old daughter, Dorothy. The tot was imprisoned and interrogated by the idiot elders. Sarah was one of those who were executed.

10/29/2012 -- See Afterthoughts & Modifications.

10/29/2012 -- Imagine a meeting.

Modified: 09/19/2018

Giles Corey

TL;DR -- Giles Corey deserves our attention and respect.  

---

We have had a few references to Giles. Ever since we read of his ordeal, he has been on the list of heroes. We, recently, heard from a descendant of Giles who had some questions. More on that below. 

First, some of the references to Giles Corey:

• Pressing Day (19 Sep 2018) -- Giles died on that day in 1692. 
• Howard Street Burial Ground (18 Feb 2020) -- Giles was buried in an unmarked area in this cemetery which is in very poor condition, from what we heard. 
• Afterthoughts & Modifications (29 Oct 2012) --- In our first fall issue of Gardner's Beacon (Vol I, No 4), we mentioned Giles and his sons. We ought to have referenced Giles' daughters and his sons-in-law. Also, we mentioned that Giles wife had been hanged, but that was three days later (Martha Corey). 
• Gardner's Beacon (Vol I, No 4)  (21 Oct 2011) -- So, the error was a year before where we look at Silly Salem and its yearly bowing down to those who want to turn real stuff into Disneyland'ish fare. Last year, at last, they restricted access to one cemetery (Charter Street) which was being destroyed by the yearly on slot. We also mention that the Court asked John Gardner to talk Giles out of his fervor. But, he was trying to save his property for his progeny. 
•  Ruth Gardner (11 Sep 2011) -- While writing of Ruth who married George Gardner (son of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer), we made several additional comments, such as this: 10/19/2011 -- Need to mention Jonathan's son, George, as seen from the Corey side (stale pointer - coryfamsoc.com): The only person who seemed to profit from the witchcraft hysteria was Sheriff George Corwin who confiscated property and pocketed fees collected from the accused and their relatives.
• South (east and central) Essex County (9 Jan 2011) -- we mentioned four people and site. First was Sidney Perley about whom we have written a lot (like figuring out the lynching site - and how Gallows Hill relates - over 100 years earlier than the modern mind). And, then the Trials of 1692, we mentioned that recognition of Giles Corey ought to be universal. There was this thing called "This week in Salem" (defunct?). Finally, John Goff who contributed a lot. 

As noted in 2011, we need to pay more attention to Giles Corey. 

Some questions were about John Gardner: identity, why was he there?, and such. Finally, we got around to trying to document all of the progeny of Thomas and Margaret Gardner to about 1900. Until now, we have been sampling for each child: Descendants of John. An example, we have had several topical post about John, such as being on the crew that mapped the Merrimack. But, we have done the same for each child; we will pull these together like this post for John Gardner. It was John who got us to focus on Sherborne, Dorset, England in the context of origins (latest post on work at WikiTree - Margaret Friar). So, lots of continuing work. 

But, we have questions, too. For instance, how long was the trip (miles and time) from Salem to Nantucket in the 1600s? There are more. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/31/2020

10/31/2020 --

King Philip, Joseph and Ann

August 12 is the 334th anniversary of Wampanoag King Philip's death (execution). The war with King Philip was a major event in New England in the latter part of the 17th century.

John Goff (a Thomas descendant and president of Salem Preservation Inc.) co-authors an article with Julianne Jennings (Strong Woman) that looks at the time and some of the facts.

       On the anniversary of Wampanoag King Philip's death 
       New England’s Second Colonial Armed Conflict: King Philip’s War Remembered 

The two authors ask some interesting what-if questions, such as: what would New England (and the rest of the continent) be like if there had been more peaceful relations between those who migrated here and those already in residence, the American Indians? As we all know from stories of the Pilgrims, things started off peaceful enough.

We know that Thomas and his children had good relations with the American Indians. We mentioned, earlier, John's (son of Thomas) effort on Nantucket.

---

The authors also remind us that American Indians, even those who surrendered, were sold, into slavery, to plantations in Bermuda (and the Caribbean). That may not seem to be in character and definitely not something to be proud of.

But, we know from history that the Puritans were not without fault, to say the least, in some of their dealings. Quakers and their children got this same type of treatment.

---

We featured Joseph (son of Thomas) and Ann in the February issue of Gardner's Beacon. Joseph and Ann had a house in Salem that had a long and interesting history. Unfortunately, it did not stand the test of time (however, its usefulness has been documented - coming issue on houses). The Joseph and Ann house was built by her father, Emanuel Downing, and had a remarkable structure for the time. Joseph, a captain in the militia, was a casualty in the Great Swamp Fight leaving Ann a widow. She later married Simon Bradstreet after having him sign a pre-nup. Her father, as a lawyer, trained his daughter well. The house became, then, known as Governor Bradstreet's house (such is the way of the world).

Remarks:

02/23/2022 -- Updated PDF for Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 1 to have links to sources. 

04/23/2021 -- Fixed link to John Goff's and Julianne Jennings' article. 

02/27/2021 -- Changed to using American Indian. 

01/12/2019 -- The article written by Julianne and John is missing. So, pulled one from Indian Country Today. 

12/19/2012 -- Changed article pointer to go to the Salem Gazette.

10/28/2012 -- September issue had a theme of houses.

08/14/2012 -- Drawn and quartered, after the swamp fight.

Modified: 02/23/2022

Wikipedia, Rev. John White et al

On Wikipedia, John White (Reverend) has moved to John White (colonist priest). Just now, fixed the redirection to the particular page, rather than have it go to the page listing all of the John Whites.

One nice reference to this page is from capecodtoday.com in their article on Cape Ann which references the Thomas Gardner (planter) page. This page was originally posted in 2010 but has been updated.

On the Thomas Gardner page, I have been changing sources to meet the Wikipedia requirements. Once that is done, we can remove the warning which is a distraction. See the Talk page for comments with regard to updates that have been done and are pending.

Remember, Wikipedia edits are open to whomever want to help in this matter. The page for Thomas Gardner (planter) was created on 10 January of 2010. Of the 366 edits, 279 are mine. From the Thomas page, there several auxiliary pages that need attention. I will list these at some point. As we have, Wikipedia, Wikitree, and the blogs plus the two websites to keep current.

Example page: Great House (Cape Ann). After hearing from John Goff, I researched this a little more. This is the house that John Endicott had moved to Salem. Thomas and Margaret enjoyed it after most went over to Naumkeag.

Much to do. The 400th looms.

Remarks: Modified: 12/04/2018

12/04/2018 --

Families, related families, sites and questions

We are going to collect a whole bunch of pointers here. These will be organized, at some point, with commentary, as necessary.

Parts of the family. In his book, Dr Frank mentioned the problem of collecting materials from parts of the family who resided outside of New England. With the web, we ought to be able to point to, or collect, material from anywhere. At some point, a repository will be necessary, it is assumed (Essex Institute, NEHGS, other).

• Rhode Island Gardners -- see Gardners and Gardners
• Maine Gardners -- This line is Samuel/Abel/Israel. My wife's line is Samuel/Abel/Abel.
• Ebenezer's house in Maine -- Samuel/? (See Remarks, 05/05/2011)
• ...

Related families. For now, pointers.

• Hall Boyce -- a large descendent's chart
• Balch -- see Sarah (See Remarks, 05/05/2011)
• Stone -- descendent's chart showing offspring of Richard, Sarah
• Behling -- descendent's chart showing offspring of Richard, John
• Kenzie -- descendent's chart showing offspring of Richard, John
• Kimball -- My college roommate was a Kimball. My wife's tree has Kimball appearing several times.
• ...

General material.

• Evidently, Thomas built a house at Cape Ann (there is a book about this written, that I saw at the Essex Institute, by a John Gardner descendant). Did Endecott move this house to Salem? Did it then move to Boston?
• Salem Roll Call -- we'll sign up, using the Thomas Gardner Society
• John White's The Planters' Plea -- when I looked at this, I thought, did he sell his nephew down the river?
• Balch's land grant. Sarah's family. (See Remarks, 05/05/2011)
• Higginson never mentioned Thomas, though he spent several years in the Salem area. His progeny married into the Gardner family, whence some of the Cabots are on the Thomas list. Too, Higginson Books published Frank's book.
• ...

It's imperative to have a listing of blogs that might be of interest or that might set a good example of how to organize the material.

• Boston 1775 -- we need to collect stories like this
• Ole's blog (olelarsonsfolks.net/Blog/category/the-ancient-past) -- liked his take on the royals (RD) -- Ole's site lost its context which was wonderful. If he is deceased, we'll greatly miss this material.
• Turn the hearts -- like the stories
• ...

Remarks:

03/01/2019 -- We're building an index by images on our Portal to truth.

04/07/2015 -- We have more questions than answers (research raises both).

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.

10/24/2012 -- John Goff (Salem's Witch House ..., pg 24) writes: After his arrival downtown in 1628, Endicott ruled that the old Thomas Gardner "Governor's House" from Cape Ann (built about 1623) be dismantled, moved by sea from Cape Ann to Naumkeag and be re-erected in earliest Salem to serve as a new Governor's House here. It stood north of the old shawmut on what is now Washington Street.

08/15/2011 -- Added image for the house (Margaret's house) that Thomas built. Expect to see more about this. The material, of course, was brought over. It was supposedly finished in 1624, taken over by Conant when he got there, and moved by Endecott to Salem. Collecting stories about this.

06/20/2011 -- On methods other than bounded paper.

05/05/2011 -- On Ebenezer plus Balch and Coffin.

12/24/2010 -- Albert and Patricia Ann Meyers' page on Thomas (note, can change, but recoverable by going to the index). [05/05/2011 -- did change?? In general, any trees from rootsweb can change due to re-indexing when there is an update. Our own database would overcome that.]

12/24/2010 -- Need to answer the question about Ebenezer (Maine, Samuel/Abel/Thomas). Plus, here is an interesting page.

12/23/2010 -- Would be derelict if I didn't mention, and use, this site by Roderic A. Davis, 2nd.

11/10/2010 -- Ole Larson is back. His genealogy site.

10/31/2010 -- Ole Larson's blog has disappeared (did he die in August, 2010?)

10/29/2010 -- We can use the first couple of generations as the basis to establish the inter-family relationships.

10/13/2010 -- We need to start a bibliography, with categories.

Modified: 03/01/2019

Descendants of Richard

 Descendants of:

Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah (Gardner) Balch,
Samuel, **, Miriam (Gardner) Hill, Seeth (Gardner) Grafton 
** Joseph (had no descendants)

This series will go through all of the children and identify some descendants. The list originally was on Wikipedia's page about Thomas Gardner (Planter). We'll put a header into each so that these can be linked, easily.

 For these lists, we will be adding more names. Chronological order:

• Mary Gardner (c. 1660s) – wife of Jethro Coffin
• Timothy Folger (c. 1700s) – studied the Gulf Stream with his cousin, Benjamin Franklin
• Nathaniel Gorham (c. 1730s) – Signer of US Constitution
• Mayhew Folger (c. 1770s) – rediscovered Pitcairn Islands in 1808
• Lucretia Coffin Mott (c. 1790s) – early abolitionist, feminist, and co-founder of Swarthmore College
• George Pollard, Jr. (c. 1791) – Captain of the Essex and the Two Brothers
• Ezra Cornell (c. 1800s) – founder of Cornell university
• Emily Lee (c. 1800s) – wife of U.S. Civil War General Daniel Tyler
• Edwin M. Stanton (c. 1810s) – Secretary of War, American Civil War
• Rowland Hussey Macy (c. 1820s) – founder of Macy's
• Phillips Brooks (c. 1830s) – author of a well-known carol.
• Charles Francis Adams II (c. 1830s) – Union General, President of Union Pacific Railroad
• James A. Folger (c. 1830s) – founder of Folger's
• Henry Clay Folger (c. 1850s) – head of Standard Oil of New York, founder of the Folger Library
• George William Coffin (c. 1840s) – Commander of 'Alert', Greely Relief Expedition
• Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (c. 1860s) – 2nd wife of Theodore Roosevelt
• William Sydney Porter (c. 1860s) – author
• Charles Austin Beard (c. 1870s) – historian, co-founder of The New School
• Harold M. Stratton (c. 1870s) – founder of Briggs & Stratton
• Esther Williams (c. 1920s) – American swimmer and movie star
• William H. Macy (c. 1950s) - American actor
• John Goff (c. 20th century) -- Salem Preservationists and one of the Gems of Salem

Lucretia Mott 

The order of the children is that used by NEHGS' Great Migration (Anderson) and Dr. Frank.

Earlier look at Richard. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/27/2022

09/26/2020 -- Added image for the portal (https://TGSoc.org). 

10/24/2020 -- Added list of children. 

12/13/2020 -- Added link to earlier look. 

01/31/2021 -- Added William H. Macy. See American Cousins post. 

08/27/2022 -- Added John Goff to the list, finally. 

Isabella

It has always been the plan to include information about collateral families, as that information carries forward with the offspring from that union.

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Isabella? Yes, Stewart; she is covered in a Wikipedia article about her museum. We have already mentioned the John Lowells a couple of times. Isabella married John "Jack" Lowell II in 1860. Their son, John III, died as an infant.

Some say that the art collecting efforts started about then.

---

There is a Stewart tradition, mentioned by Frank A, about King Fergus. However, Isbella's mother, Adelia Smith, has an interesting family history (Larson).

Remarks:

01/01/2019 -- Isabella featured in a New England Historical Society article: Isabella Stewart Gardner Holds a Champagne and Donuts Party on New Year's Day. Earlier, forgot to put in this link: 10 Sep 2016 - Stone from the Gardner-Wyman-Peabody Mill found in the low tide. Provided a summary of the history of the family that owned the mill to John Goff (who wrote of the mill in The Tide Mill Times). A member of the family was John Lowell Gardner II.

06/19/2013 -- Removed link for Larson tree at rootsweb. Database not there.

06/19/2013 -- See Nutfield Genealogy: Tombstone Tuesday ~ Isabella Stewart Gardner Mausoleum for photos. Find a grave for Isabella.

02/01/2013 -- Updated rootsweb references for Larson tree. 

Modified: 01/01/2019

Conflict with the American Indian

TL;DR - Early on, conflict was minimal. With more new entrants, the potential for conflict grew. For almost two centuries, the incursion covered coastal areas. Even though western movement started early on, it was a gradual affair with small steps. Until the Revolution and Europe (Spain, France) giving (selling) their claims. Even then, the expanding frontier was an experience of over a century. We can look at the history with an educated eye. What are resolutions that might be pending? Events like the 400ths (and the 300ths, and 250ths, and 200ths, and the 100ths) are good points to step back and review. 

--

Though we have mentioned the American Indians (changed in the blog from Native Americans) whose population experienced the incursion from Europe in several posts, we need to make this topic a regular point of research. Our focus was primarily New England for a while; just recently, we see that we need to change to a broader view since the West was established over several long decades after the Revolution. 

And, part of that widening is to bring New France and New Spain into the discussion where New England had much more association with the former. So, we will continue to have the early period that pertain to the colonies. Then, there is the following period that is around the Revolution and shortly after. Before, we had the French-Indian affair which involved quibbling with New France. Conflicts in that period occurred in what we can call the south (say Florida) and the mid-West. 

Then, we can focus on the period up to the Civil War. And, finally, there would be the time after the Civil War (which really is open ended). Each of these periods involve clashes between immigrants and the American Indians. But, there are inter-American-Indian issues to look at, too. Some talk of these latter two partitions as East of and West of the Mississippi (this post uses the Ohio River as an example of friction building). But, we saw it, too, with Boone, earlier. 

See Wikipedia's American Indian Wars. 

We can use our partitioning where we point to a post for an example of the period. 

• Colonial (to 1776) - John Goff's article can serve as our example: King Philip's conflict (John Goff's article). 
• Wilderness (to Lewis & Clark) - A southern example would be the Trail of Tears. 
• Going west (to Civil War) - The trappers were from the territories of New France, originally. Later, we find wanderers from the east coast. Example: Arikara War which gave us Hugh Glass and a movie (see Gardner River which is even further out). 
• Everywhere frontier (Civil War, on) - Some of these conflicts were from the west coast (Oregon and surrounds) inward. 

Let's leave our cursory beginning with a couple of links. 

• U.S. Army view - Indian War Campaigns
• The Order of the Indian Wars of the United States - Campaigns  

So, we have not been unaware. There was lots of material to read, digest, and organize. So, conflicts? Has the U.S. ever been without this? We mentioned from the beginning that the future would include participation by American Indians in ways to be discovered. The Mayflower event was a good example. 

An additional comment is in order. After the work of the past three years, it is our assessment that the eastern stuff is well handled. That is, the stories told, except we have found a few. So, we will have a continuing appreciation of the east (east is least?). On the other hand, the west is sorely covered and needs a whole lot more attention. It is not that easterners of note have not come out, after all we have Lawrence KS (see Frontier century) as an example. But, the NCAA is a good metaphor. How many easterners know about the PAC-12 (we have to kick ourselves to remember the PAC-8)? So, we'll end with this graphic. 

Promises in 1851

These are the promises of 1851. We can find those before and after. And, will. 

As an aside, this is about the time that Judge Thompson was on his jaunt where he helped found Montana. It is past the California Gold Fever. But, people were still on the look out for things that shine or had some value (the whole bit of establishing this will come into the discussion, as well). 

Remarks: Modified: 05/28/2022

05/02/2021 -- Brief recap of the later times: Great Sioux Reservation. 

06/02/2021 -- Learning more about the American Indian leaders and the New Englanders who were at the Little Arkansas Peace negotiations and signing. 

05/28/2022 -- Memorial Day, 2022 - An Osage Mission.